10 - Sweet Symphony #NaPoWriMo Day 10 and tonight I’ve been writing a free verse inspired by the Random Song Generator giving me a track by RAYE, and autoplay taking me to another in the album, and suddenly I was hooked and looking up the lyrics and then bigger pictures of the cover art and what seems like no time later, here is a free-write stream-of-consciousness. Enjoy the album – I intend to! Remember that, if you’re a subscriber to my Patreon, you can hear a recording of this piece (and the nine preceding it) there. The link to the relevant post is here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sweet-symphony-155326024 --- Image first this time, since the poem is responding to it, sourced from the artist’s website, and I dearly hope I’m not going to get into trouble for this, as this piece is, essentially, a recommendation… She flies a kite, bright above the flat land, she opens a door to impossibility. She has carved a blue-white place beyond the tumult, she is saying ‘This too will pass. but ask yourself if there’s a way to make it hurry up, come on.’ ‘See me: I am red against the green, the grey, I am day in night, and night in day, bathing in contradiction, strong arms straining against the gravity of the situation, dazzling in satin, not just waiting for it to happen. I demand happiness, and I will lean my whole weight into this.’ It is theatre, my dear – it is all a show, and you should know that, on closer inspection, the clouds are a flat on wheels, the light too bright and focused to be anything but electrical. But the woman glimmers, real as red against green against grey, saying, ‘I stood on one foot for this, I wrote my heart into the lyrics underpinning it, everything is as palpable as the feelings invoked by my voice, my words, the soar and surge of chorus, don’t ignore this, it can contain hope.’ And so this barely edited free write takes flight, despite any misgivings, singing home the lingering visions inflicted on me, joyfully, carrying a piece of blue dutifully with me. The grass will rebound from under the wheels, the bare feet; the satin will lose its heat and uncrease, but these feelings remain real, and that’s a gift worth writing home about.

Latest piece: 10 - Sweet Symphony: #NaPoWriMo Day 10 and tonight I’ve been writing a free verse inspired by the Random Song Generator giving me a track by RAYE, and autoplay taking me to another in the album, and suddenly I was hooked and looking up… #ekphrasticpoetry #freewriting #music #random

Man in a room with a lamp, plant and window. TItle: Man in a Room. Quote: 'seeming absorbed into the street wall looking up to the window grille -- ' Poet: Sheila Saunders.

Sheila Saunders' poem 'Man in a Room' is an ekphrastic poem inspired by Lucien Freud's 'Interior at Paddington': the subject is not necessarily the subject but rather an indication of mood and of a slow unravelling.

inksweatandtears.co.uk/sheila-saund...

#InkSweatandTears #EkphrasticPoetry

More info on the painting here: stewedpears.com/a-cosey-corn...

#poem #poetry #ekphrasticpoetry

Photo courtesy of my forever muse, my favorite person - @curtains-trees.bsky.social

#poetry #poetrycommunity #eroticpoetry #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry #poem

Photo courtesy of @modelart17.bsky.social

#ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry #poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #eroticpoetry #poet

1 - Nightlights NaPoWriMo has struck again, and this year I’m determined to finish. 2023 was the last time I tried, and I got precisely four poems out of it. 2024 I was moving house, and 2025 I was receiving, then recovering from surgery. This seems like a decent year to start again… If you’re a paying Patreon of mine, you’ll see all of them (and only Patrons – paying or free – get to hear recordings of me reading them). If not, you’ll only see the ones I have no intention of saving for third party publication. This was not one of the ones I’m keen to cling to, but then, so far I’ve not exactly produced any immortal bangers on the first day of the challenge (yes, I just checked back through all of them, shhh). I looked for an image to do some ekphrasis with and the first lines that came to mind felt like they belonged in an end-rhyming, common metre poem. Often enough, style informs substance, so this is not the poem I started out to write, but it is the poem I finished, which is, after all, the point… --- image courtesy of picryl Down here the cracks are crevices, and all the streetlights stars. These details where the Devil lives are written in the scars. Marred tarmac, paint, and metal struts are sutured by the stains of diesel, gum, discarded butts, the residue of rain. Every puddle is a lake, each divot is a dale; arrivals conjure earthquakes, departures summon gales. But here black has a thousan shades, up close, grit scintillates; this patch of moss a pleasant glade, a single breadcrumb sates. The miniscule holds treasures if you’re prepared to look, and what you thought half-measures might just contain a book…link to Patreon post, complete with recording, here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/nightlights-154561064

Latest piece: 1 - Nightlights: NaPoWriMo has struck again, and this year I’m determined to finish. 2023 was the last time I tried, and I got precisely four poems out of it. 2024 I was moving house, and 2025 I was receiving, then… #commonmetre #ekphrasticpoetry #endrhyme #napowrimo #patreon

This is my IG friend Beta Kitten. She’s a beautiful person and beautiful soul.

#poetry #poetrycommunity #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry #poem #poet

Photo by @curtains-trees.bsky.social

#poetry #poem #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry #eroticpoetry #poetrycommunity

5 March is ABSINTHE DAY :

“L’Absinthe” in Storyteller Poetry Review (Super-Sized Series: Ekphrastic Poems Part 2, 18 October 2024)
stortellerpoetryreview.blogspot.com/2024/10/supe...

Safe Journeys!

#AbsintheDay #absinthe #poetry #EkphrasticPoetry #EdgarDegas

A would-be poem for a local ekphrastic poetry contest. #poem #poetry #ekphrasticpoetry #SATX

It’s based on a statue called “Canyon Princess.”

Slinking down the canyon;
muscles coil and uncoil
beneath bronzed fur.
Prey lies within vision
‘cross the water stream.
The hunt is on.

They mapped you in colors—Hope, Firmness, Secretiveness—little provinces of certainty, as if a life could harden into bone, as if destiny pressed outward until it showed. Fingers traced your skull like Braille written by God, but the real map lived elsewhere: in the tremor before speech, the heat of shame, the mind turning on itself at three in the morning. No chart marked regret. No border held tenderness. Beneath their tidy labels everything moved, wild and borderless as weather.

#poetryprompt #MPPrompt #ekphrasticpoetry #phrenology

#Poem The Swan, No. 20 (Hilma af Klimt) by Victoria Chang

today’s #HighlightedPoet @victoriachang.bsky.social

#BlueSkyPoets #PoetrySky #Poetry #EkphrasticPoetry

after Roy Lichtenstein In a scene taken from a back comic’s annals, ordinance flies through the diptych’s panels. Whooshing by, rockets fry another guy’s tin as readily as if it had been double-ply tissue. And herein lies the issue. The difference between parody and creation is a thin line. Thinner still is when traced art appreciates in value by hundreds of millions. In this image and the rest, Roy jacked panes from among an established cartoonists’ best, cribbing from Irving ‘Irv’ Novick’s work in DC Comics’ All-American Men at War #89. Irv was likely paid in the range of $75-$100 per page back in 1962. Roy received a wage around £4k all told as Whaam! sold in 1969. All’s fair in love and war. And art especially. I wouldn’t be keen on Irv’s work necessarily if the artwork Whaam! had never been made. And now I am.

New ekphrastic poem on Roy Lichtenstein’s Whaam! Let me know what you think!

#poetry #ekphrasticpoetry #art

Flawless paper skin mottles and cracks. There is no part of oneself that will not be doubled over or leveled and laid flat to give him a space to sponsor cheques. One’s body bears its own dread as candidly as red horns adorn his head. Trying to scroll through the entire TOS is torture enough absent the extra threat of getting bled dry. His best trick, dictated by a pen’s click, consigns ink to the small of one’s back. Sin necessitates penance. His levied pocks are punctuation marks penciled in at the end of one’s sentence.

With my upcoming third book being about art and ekphrastic poetry, I wanted write ekphrastic poems after the Gordon Ross pieces I used as covers for my first two books.
Here is the first, The Devil's Masterpiece, which graces the cover of Stage Direction!

#poetry #original-poem #ekphrasticpoetry

My Fear of Night Diving after Pacita Abad You and me both. A writhing host of fins and rubber limbs (in reference to myself) imbibe on darker foam. Acrylics lathered into the palette’s purples loom. Fish (to me) are barely more than choices (that I ignore) at weddings or a metaphor; unthought-of and rarely literal. Night diving is here seen as an actual fear one faces. (I imagine my sad, pale, visage as a poor, unfortunate, fish's inverse; an ungainly man ham-handed into places.) (True horror lies in the sights I cannot see, an unplumbed sea’s mysteries unregarded, as the divers I can never be. Fear finds me inland, keeping far from shore. My Fear of Night Diving bites at the periphery of my ocean's floor.)

Tried something a little different with parentheses here. A new ekphrastic poem after a Pacita Abad work that is so simultaneously playful and frightening, I fell in love with it immediately. Let me know what you think!

#poetry #poem #pacitaabad #ekphrasticpoetry #poets

A shiny pattered wall facade with a yellow camera symbol sign at the top which reads "you are under cctv surveillance". There is a red sign in the middle of the wall with a symbol of a fire extinguisher and a fire with the text "fire extinguisher" at the bottom. On the floor in front of this wall is a red fire extinguisher with a thin hose wrapped around it. To the left of this wall is a store with a sliver of a view inside it. To the right of this wall is a lit up sign for a furniture store, partially visible.

A poem titled "Voluntary", written by enyantiomer on april 10, 2024, which reads: "The following is a strongly worded list of elective procedures that you can choose to follow optionally, at your own risk discretion: Do not split the vote Please consider the feelings of the yellowcake The sniper drone has to have googly eye stickers now Your child’s wages need a raised income tax slab Choose next book burning venues with at least 6 air changes per hour We must meet your abuser where they are We have to defeat fascism in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Legalise tuberculosis as a nootropic There is a case to be made for a kinder, gentler scorched earth The PM2.5 consigned for the air filter is entitled to your lungs"

#Poem #Poetry #ekphrasis #EkphrasticPoetry #Writing #PhonePhotography #SmartphonePic #Photography

A poem by me, titled "Voluntary" with the image that inspired it. It can also be read here: https://thirtypoem.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/voluntary/

One Image , Five Words of Less , Every Month - A Year Long Story.

January
“Tears of the Sun”
#journal #art #photo-story #photography #photodiary #narrative #photoessay #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry

Yayoi Kusama
pumpkin waits to be eaten-
break your teeth on it

#YayoiKusama
#artandpoetry
#ekphrasticpoetry
#vss365 #photography
#BlueSkyPoets #senryu

A yellow machine with a triangular arch holding an outstretched metal arm. There are (likely) hydraulic wires sticking out on certain portions of the machine.

A poem written on April 5th 2024 titled "Deposition", which reads: "Hold a weapon in higher esteem than your fellow compatriots Surrender to the disarming charms of the well armed arms dealer’s arms dealer’s national endowment for the arts’ art teacher The beliefs will be well earned, for now only paid in for-exposure retainer, with no traceable chain of command but a redeemable scrip for a future havana syndrome influencer with their own Agency"

#Poem #Poetry #ekphrasis #EkphrasticPoetry #Writing #StreetPhotography #PhonePhotography #SmartphonePic

Another one of my poems, titled "Deposition" with the accompanying image which inspired it. You can also read it here: https://thirtypoem.wordpress.com/2024/04/05/deposition/

An image of a road border checkpoint with a checkpost booth surrounded by metal poles painted in alternating horizontal yellow and white thick stripes. Over the booth, there is a sprawling metal latticed roof with bright lights attached.

A poem written on april 6, 2022 by enyantiomer titled "Checkpoint", which reads: 'Suppository accountabilities that supercede “to each according to their need and ability” Outsized outposts gushing with flags of limited availability stable civility Provision feeds of bigotry contingent on which human skin mimicry currently leads the ministry Makes for a more cinematic mise-en-scene to demand more bleed to add prestige to the hysteresis of history “No gods, no masters…” unless its the bad actor casting craters, instigating “shoot and cry” candor The self-branded commandment commander beeseches you to give war a dispassionate gander So that when bricks burst to dander, mortar mutates to paste, you can precision strike your anger Into invading hague for warcrimes while the best you can jest is being a red handed bystander'

#Poem #Poetry #ekphrasis #EkphrasticPoetry #Writing #Rhyming #Rhymes #NightPhotography #StreetPhotography #PhonePhotography #SmartphonePic

One of my favourite poems of mine, titled "Checkpoint", accompanied by the photo it was inspired from. You can also […]

[Original post on pixelfed.social]

Today I got notice that my poem, The Moon, was accepted for publication. It's based on this painting, The Moon, by Tarsila do Amaral (Brazil, 1928). #EkphrasticPoetry #KenBoyd @streetlightmag.bsky.social

The Lithograph Artist and Van Gogh - A Poem - Stewed Pears . com This poem began as a very simple response to Marsden Hartley's fruit bowl, and, somehow, grew into a sparring match with Vincent van Gogh.

This was an interesting one. Diminishing verse was fun.
#poem #poetrycommunity #ekphrasticpoetry

“red”

riding hood
I need to
cover my head. my
mother serves me
my grandmother
‘s ham recipe (on toast)
I gobble it up, the
aorta-colored soup
burps in the bowl
a grotesque sheen
my thorough heart
harrumphing under the
floorboards
edgar/eager ly

#ekphrasticpoetry #poem #writingcommunity

Circe Individiosa by #JohnWilliamWaterhouse. The art of mythology as inspiration for my upcoming #EkphrasticPoetry.
More Waterhouse art, johnwilliamwaterhouse.net/the-complete...
#ArsPoetica #MasterOfMythology #KenBoyd

I’m elated to see my forthcoming @tupelopress.bsky.social poetry collection mentioned in @publisherswkly.bsky.social! #poetry #andrewwyethchronicles #newbook #ekphrasticpoetry

An overcast scene with drops of rain with a view of a lush green valley flanked by lush green mountains on either side.

A poem titled "Lead-acid punk", which reads: "We were walking on soft earth There was no lead in the plumbing There was a garden in your backyard, in my backyard We all ate food glistening dirtless in a sun shaded to cause no illness The batteries were all charged forever There were no wires, There was no tape Everything was plentiful, at nobody’s expenses, at least none that you know of We were walking the fringe of a clear pond partaking in the sculpted landscape sequestering everything impure I had such a pretty dream once" continued in next image...

continued from previous image... "The soil squelches effluents Every heavy metal naturally reseeded There are family owned farms in their backyards, their family’s backyards The rot is so deep that the produce might as well be all peels Recycling fires burn outer limits of forever There was hand reclaimed copper, There was civilian application home surveillance Everything was plentiful, at nobody’s expense, at least nobody who’ll be held accountable We were walking the fringe of a clear sky partaking in stringing filters partitioning air I had such a pretty dream once I wish there was no morning"

#Poem #Poetry #Writing #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry #landscape

I occasionally do a "poem a day" on my poetry blog, each inspired by a photo I took, for the month of april: https://thirtypoem.wordpress.com/

Here's a poem titled "Lead-acid punk", which you […]

[Original post on pixelfed.social]

Caracole — An Ekphrastic Poem Siren Song Writing Prompt Number 18

My poem Caracole shared on Medium (2 min read)

#EkphrasticPoetry #poem #poetry #ConcretePoetry

The shape looks correct if on a laptop. If on a phone not so much. I hope you like it.

medium.com/siren-song/c...

This beautiful image is from @ballerinaproject_ Please check out their Instagram page!

#poetry #poem #poetrycommunity #drunkenpoet #drunkpoetry #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry

Dining Room Chair from the Speaker's House, Palace of Westminster - A Poem - Stewed Pears . com There was something so steadfast, and slightly, pompous, about this dining room chair, that called for closer examination.

Well, now, at the very least, I can say I used to keep it classy ...

#poetry #poem #ekphrasticpoetry

stewedpears.com/dining-room-...

My ekphrastic poem inspired by my favorite painting, which I had the good fortune to view at the Art Institute of Chicago

#poetrycommunity
#artinstituteofchicago
#ekphrasticpoetry
#thebathers
#bouguereau
#poetrylovers